Saturday Pebble Report:

Colorado Springs: L 3-4

Mark Redman had a quality start and Joe Koshansky and Seth Smith drove in the three Sky Sox runs. Alberto Arias sort of blew it in the tenth, but the Sky Sox should have had more than three runs in a nine inning contest in Tucson. We're not getting very far with getting Rockies besides Clint Hurdle into the MLB All-Star game, but you can vote for the Sky Sox for the AAA All-Star game.

Tulsa: W 5-4

Alan Johnson continued his AA turnaround with seven strong innings for the Drillers, but it took them nine additional frames after that to pull out the victory. Johnson allowed just one run off a sixth inning solo homerun, struck out four and walked none. In the sixteen inning affair, Tony Blanco, Jeff Kindel and Matt Miller all went three for seven, and Jeff Dragicevich three for six. Casey Weathers was credited for a hold even though the tying runs were also credited to him. Weathers retired just one batter, allowing two hits, an HBP and a wild pitch. He, Tomas Santiago, Ryan Mattheus and Darren Clarke were all pretty miserable out of the bullpen for the Drillers. Adam Bright, despite getting the blown save which in a just world would have gone to Weathers, and Jarrett Grube were pretty solid.

Modesto: L 1-2

Keith Weiser's been pitching well of late, also, but Modesto's offense continues to struggle.

Asheville: L 4-7

Speaking of struggling, the Tourists are close to losing their way into a playoff spot as both they and Charleston have run out of steam at the same time. Everth Cabrera had four hits, including a triple and Michael Mitchell, Lars Davis and Jeff Cunningham each had two hits, but missed opportunities plagued the Tourists as zero for fives from Brian Rike and Helder Velazquez proved particularly costly as far as killing potential rallies. Cory Riordan pitched well for five innings, but gave up three in the sixth, and three more in a portion of the seventh to take the loss. That's a sign of a tiring arm, as is the general decline in his performance in June, so the coming All-Star break might be coming at a perfect time for him.

Rockies DSL

I'm not going to give daily updates from the DSL, but just point out strong performances as I notice them. In this case "Cousin" Vianney Mayo (as Woody Paige dubbed him last year) came on in relief of Jonathan Vargas for five innings yesterday and struck out eight batters. Five of the six outs he recorded in his 2008 debut Tuesday were also via K, leaving him with a 13/3 K/BB ratio in seven innings. He's still got some control issues, however, as that doesn't count the pair he plunked yesterday, but a 44% K rate with a 64% GB rate for an eighteen year old is very sharp.